Nigel Farage told Trevor Phillips that: ‘When you’ve got British people with British passports, going out to fight for Isis, don’t be surprised if there isn’t an uptick in concern.’
Photograph: Outline Productions

Nigel Farage has warned there is rising public concern about immigration partly because people believe there are some Muslims who want to form “a fifth column and kill us”, and that there has never before been a migrant group that wants to “change who we are and what we are”.

The Ukip leader also said that race and other anti-discrimination legislation should be abolished, arguing that it was no longer needed in the United Kingdom, in an interview with former equality and human rights commissioner Trevor Phillips for Channel 4.

Farage said the emergence of British-born Islamist extremists was an “especial problem”, with some Muslim immigrants who do not want to integrate prompting wider public concern.

During the interview, the Ukip leader said: “I think perhaps one of the reasons the polls show an increasing level of concern is because people do see a fifth column living within our country, who hate us and want to kill us.

There is no previous experience, in our history, of a migrant group that fundamentally wants to change who we are

Nigel Farage

“So don’t be surprised if there isn’t a slight increase in people’s worries and concerns. You know, when you’ve got British, when you’ve got people, born and bred in Cardiff, with British passports, going out to fight for Isis, don’t be surprised if there isn’t an uptick in concern. There has been an uptick in concern, but does it make us a prejudiced people? No.”

In contrast, he said, previous waves of immigration by Huguenots, Jews and Ugandan Asians became integrated in society while often maintaining private observance of their faiths and traditions.

“There is an especial problem with some of the people who’ve come here and who are of the Muslim religion who don’t want to become part of our culture. So there is no previous experience, in our history, of a migrant group that comes to Britain, that fundamentally wants to change who we are and what we are. That is, I think, above everything else, what people are really concerned about.”

He also indicated that anti-discrimination legislation had become irrelevant.

Pressed on which discrimination laws he would get rid of, the Ukip leader said: “Much of it. I think the employer should be much freer to make decisions on who he or she employs.”

Trevor Phillips said he wanted to discuss the consequences of the equality movement. Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images

Asked whether there would be a law against discrimination on the grounds of race or colour under Ukip, Farage added: “No … because we take the view, we are colour-blind. We as a party are colour-blind.”

Phillips said he made the programme because he had come to the conclusion that, while much of the equality movement in Britain had changed it for the better, it might also have led to serious and unwanted consequences that could undermine what had been achieved.

Farage has previously issued warnings in the wake of the French terror attacks, which Theresa May, the home secretary, called irresponsible and Labour grandee Tessa Jowell said she thought were sickening.

With Ukip polling at around 15% and immigration consistently cited as one of the top concerns of voters, the Channel 4 programme interviewed Farage to explore whether the UK’s “attempt to embrace a multi-ethnic Britain has led directly to the rise of the party”.

During the interview, Farage acknowledged that in all honesty he used to see Phillips as “the enemy” and “very, very much as being part of a new Labour project … the politically correct brigade that wouldn’t want these things discussed.”

Phillips said he had got on well with Farage during the interview and they had a good conversation, but he declined to elaborate at this point on what he thought of the Ukip leader’s position. A Ukip aide also said the two men had got on very well.

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In publicity material released before the screening, Channel 4’s head of specialist factual, David Glover, said: “This film contains some very uncomfortable facts about race. Trevor Phillips now strongly believes that it’s important to get them out there, so ultimately we can understand and tackle them.

“Trevor is arguably the best-qualified person in the country to examine these issues. What’s fascinating is that, having thought so deeply about them, he now has a very different approach to the subject than he used to.”

Farage has made immigration a key plank of his election campaign, saying the party would reduce numbers by leaving the European Union, banning unskilled migrants for five years and bringing in an Australian points-style system.

The Ukip leader has been able to exploit David Cameron’s failure to meet his target of bringing down net migration to the tens of thousands from hundreds of thousands, with the current figure running at almost 300,000.

A YouGov poll found last week that 75% of people think immigration has been too high and only 2% think it has been too low. ComRes and ITV research last month found Ukip was more trusted than the other parties on the issue of immigration but 48% said it did not have sensible policies.

Things We Won’t Say About Race That Are True, Channel 4, 9pm, 19 March